Our first gift exchange

Jessica and I have always had this rule as long as I can remember that we will just be friends for Christmas. No gifts. But when we started having kids, we had to let them have their own little gift exchanges. So here we are at our first gift exchange of the 2010 Christmas Season!

Abby, Clifford is coming over! (Yes, Abby calls Christopher, Clifford. And he calls her, Addy.) No, she screams. They act like they don't like each other, but deep down, I know their hearts are full of love for one another! :)

Macy Kate, Clifford is coming over.

And, she sleeps!

Sweet Boy! Hey there Clifford!!

Jessica wrapped Addy's present with a blowpop in the ribbon. Abby noticed that right away!! She could have just given her the blowpop and would have earned points with Abs. But the Nemo movie was the perfect gift!!

We gave Christopher two cars from the movie "CARS".

And, she's back to the blowpop again.

This picture makes me laugh so much. They are looking at each other like, "don't even think about coming over and taking my new presents!"

Oh the love they share! LOL! This was our attempt at getting them to stand next to each other by the Christmas Tree. Look how far away they are from each other. LOL!! That's as close as they got!

I think he loves it!

Ignore how awful I look. Here's Macy Kate getting her "My first Christmas" ornament from Jess. So sweet! It was precious!!

Christopher was using Jess' leg as a ramp.

We got Baby Clara Rose hair bows as a gift. I'm so excited that Jessica is going to have a little girl.

Abby finally got the wrapper off of the blowpop. :) And now she's back to her usual, dinging that bell on the tree. LOL!

We had a great time!! It's so weird to see ourselves as Mommy's and getting gifts for our kids. It's like we are now grown-ups or something.

Later that night we went out to dinner. Here's Abby, NOT eating her food, but enjoying her movie on my phone.

She thinks she knows how to operate it.

Guess she figured it out. Not sure if she sent out any crazy text messages or prank called anyone, but either way, she made her way back to the movie. :)

We went Christmas Light Lookin' after dinner. One of my favorite things to do at Christmas time. I love the houses with the awful lights just as much as the good ones. This was the first year that Abby didn't sleep the whole time and actually enjoyed the lights as much as I did. She would point out all the colors she saw and all the figurines that she knew, Santa, Snowman, etc. It was so sweet. I can't wait for next year to go and look at lights again with her!

Christmas Candy

Abby and I had a fun time making Christmas candy for Santa. Now that I'm posting this blog, I hope to do something like this every year with the girls, but at the time....I swore I would never do it again. We ended up with 5 million sprinkles all over the place. I'm still stepping on those tiny little dots.

She was so sweet making her candy. At first, she was picking up the sprinkles one by one. I'm not kidding. I thought this would be mess free, but may take us 2 years to finish. So I showed her a faster way to decorate and our mess slowly starts to take place.

Her little works of art.

"So pretty" she kept saying.


So sweet. love her!!

Here is where she realized that her works of art tasted so good!! And it was down hill from there. She was eating them as fast as I could make them. Hopefully, I caught all of the half eaten ones. hopefully!

Yummy!!

I bet she has already eaten 15 of these pretzels by this point.

Once I started picking up the pretzels, she needed another way to release her creativity. She started mixing the sprinkles.

Green with Red

Green with Rainbow

Rainbow with Green

I took this picture and then immediately threw the camera down and picked her up. She was being so good just mixing her sprinkles, then all the sudden, she started smearing those red sprinkles all over the place. It became the biggest MESS within seconds!!

Here's a video of her making her candy before it turned into a sprinkle war zone!

Frisco Safety Town

We decided at the last minute to head out to Frisco's Safety Town and walk around to see if Abby would enjoy the Christmas lights. Each of the little buildings were decorated with lights and sponsored by local businesses. They were giving out balloons, had face painting stations, and even places where you could EMAIL your list to Santa.

I thought this tractor was cool. I especially like the two "kids" in the picture.

Macy Kate slept the whole time. It was a little chilly outside and she was all warm and cozy in her car seat.


As we walked around, we saw this rather short line for Santa. We knew that this probably wasn't going to go well, but it was worth a try. AND, it was free. You could take your own picture and didn't have to pay $30 for a 5x7. Stan kept talking to Abby about sitting in Santa's lap. She was all for it. UNTIL, we walked inside and I went to sit her in his lap. That was NOT going to happen. Oh well, we tried. And of course, the moment we leave, she's talking about seeing Santa again.

I guess all the commotion of Abby not sitting in Santa's lap woke this little one up. :) She even has bed-head.

Abby's Nativity Set

I took this picture of Abby's Nativity Set early in December. Notice anything unusual? Well, to begin with baby Jesus and the Angel have switched rolls. She likes to put baby Jesus on top of the manger instead of inside of it. :) And, we are missing a Wise Man and a sheep.
The week before Christmas, I finally broke down and cleaned her room top to bottom looking for the Wise Man and the sheep. I looked everywhere, inside the clothes hamper, toy box, bed, underneath the bed, trash can, etc. I was about to give up until something caught my eye in the shutters in her room. Do you see what I see?

Yep, here they were!! Our missing pieces. I ran to show Abby what I had found and she acted like she knew they were in the window seal the whole time. I was so excited we had the full set and would have the full set for Christmas.
All was great until later that day, the cow went missing as well. :/ Luckily I found the cow under her bed.


Notice anything wrong with these Christmas figurines?


Look closer, Santa is missing. He's left his boots on top of the "o" but he's gone.

Another work of Abby. She broke this Santa off and carries him around with her. Now, he's missing. Guess I'll find him someday. :) Maybe he'll show up next year.

We're getting ready for Christmas!!!

Macy Kate, 2 months, wearing one of Abby's old shirts. It's a little snug on her at the same age as when Abby wore it. :)

Solid Sweetness!!

I can't get enough of this girl!!

My photo shoot helper needed a spontaneous kiss from Macy Kate. :)

I think she just wants to be behind the scenes....she refuses to look at the camera.

"Okay MacyKate, say Cheese!!"

"Oh, I'll help her."

She's constantly loving on her little sister. I love it so much!

Sometimes Veggie Tales can be distracting!

Just for fun, here are a couple of pictures of Abby at the same age as Macy Kate, 2 months.

Abby Jewel, 2 months

I have 269 pictures to go through from Christmas. Be patient lots of posts coming!!

Macy Kate in Dec 2010

She is growing way too fast and I'm definitely not taking enough pictures of her. :( Here are some random pictures that I've taken of her this month.

Love her so much!!